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According to media reports, the Vatican Bank has accepted payments for Russian gas in rubles.
The source also said that the Vatican bought rubles from the Central Bank of Russia for the equivalent of 10 million euros and that the Vatican has completed all the necessary steps in the method of purchasing gas in rubles.

Currently the news has not been confirmed by either party, but if this is true and creates a domino effect. It can be said that European sanctions against Russia have failed.

source: https://iravaban.net/en/375887.html

There is no option for to get gas from Russia but to buy rubles to buy gas. This will eventually make the rubles price soar especially if the Russia makes its demand higher as well. In the end the world will be more decentralize in some way which every country can also do the same decreasing the dominance of USD. 

I wouldn't say “there is no tragedy in that.” because the conflict affects the EU countries that relies on gas from Russia.

What's the credibility of the source?

It seems like it'd be really risky for European countries to buy rubles now and there have been reports Russia have recently gone back on the idea of making Europe cover funds to rubles to buy oil - there's a chance some did and it did nothing to the value too.

Russia already shot itself economically by going to war, most of its currency's collapse was für to that and not directly to sanctions (though sanctions have helped to make it more desperate for resources it needs to repair damaged equipment).

I don't think sanctions would do much to Russia anyway though, they're not very strong and there isn't enough agreement between countries for them to be effective.

Edit: with all this being said, isn't sugar and wheat running low on Russia - euros and crude oil aren't very tasty or nutricious?

if it's the Vatican, maybe they will get special treatment by Europe,,, because they are a holy city that is free from political interference.. so when they buy gas with rubles, Europe will not have a problem with that

There are other articles about it:

Vatican bank transferred 10M Euros to buy Rubles from the Central Bank of Russia to pay for gas - media (https://www.forexfactory.com/news/1147550-vatican-bank-transferred-10m-euros-to-buy-rubles)

The Vatican was the first in Europe to pay Russia for gas in rubles (https://24happenings.com/markets/155647.html)

but they don't seem very reliable, and actually, the first one that pops up on google when you search says:

No, The Vatican Is Not Paying For Russian Gas In Rubles. (https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/No-The-Vatican-Is-Not-Paying-For-Russian-Gas-In-Rubles.html)

The "source" of the fake news seems to be a tweet.

There is live updates about Ukraine war on news like BBC and CNN, try and read such news than reading rumours, no news related to that yet, if Vatican want to start accepting ruble, it will be on the news.

This is impromptu, the reason EU still depends on Russia fossil fuels, EU promise to stop import from Russia by 2027 (I do not remember the actual year but I know it is not more than 7 years from now).

That is true, but there are alternatives which they want to go for now.

In fact, this is yesterday's fake, which was distributed on the Internet to all sites.
But what you are suggesting is to trust the central news, which in your opinion tells the "truth", is also wrong. Today, the truth is where it is beneficial, but alas, not in the news channels.
Although unfriendly countries with Russia will have to pay in rubles not only for gas but later for grain, as well as for everything that will be supplied by Russia.

I don't know a lot about policies inside the Vatican but as far as we know about this country they usually don't really care about political staff and putting any country under sanction or stopping trading with any country because they try to stay away from the war and political stuff and the reason could be clear, in Vatican everything based in religion and they just want to keep their doing theirs without of involving into any tensions with other countries. however and even after all this, I was expecting much more from them.

Actually this is the most political country which even Royal family and US presidents beg at the Pope. I think other countries will look at the action of Vatican as a message to the leaders about what they need to do. Its about following what God says.


The alternative is always there even solar and wind energy is an alternative asmuch as they look on biogas. Importing from US is an alternative but this is costly which they also knew it comes from Russia.
Its still in the news that US importing gas from Russia. Can't verify that information but its in the news. They can't just breach a gas deal/contract because there is a war and sanctions.

Two days have passed since this news, and I do not think that countries will commit themselves to paying in rubles, but this does not mean that the possibility of payment in dollars will continue.
European countries cannot do without Russian gas, nor can Russia according to the flow of gas.
The solution will be in a central region if the confrontations in Ukraine decrease.

I googled it, and the first link online I got what on how the Vatican isn't paying in rubles  (https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/No-The-Vatican-Is-Not-Paying-For-Russian-Gas-In-Rubles.html). The report of it doing so was based on a tweet which turned out to be a joke, but some media fell for it, so it became widely spread. I see that people in the thread also point out the questionable credibility of this news, and it seems that they're right to do so. As for the question about gas and rubles, if you mean the first country in Europe geographically, then I'm sure Serbia won't mind, as it's already very pro-Russian. If you mean the EU, it seems to me that they're against rubles, but that there's a workaround  (https://www.dw.com/en/germany-says-putin-agreed-to-keep-payments-for-gas-in-euros/a-61310461)via Gazprombank, so that EU countries can pay in euros, and the bank can convert the payments to rubles.
In the meantime, we have the first EU country that abandoned Russian gas despite being heavily dependent on it: Lithuania (https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/verslas/4/1660795/luzio-taskas-lietuvos-energetines-nepriklausomybes-istorijoje-visiskai-atsisakyta-rusisku-duju-importo).

Here is a rather credible source clearly stating that this news sparked after a tweet went viral and in fact the tweet owner has apologized as well, here is the link to that post:  https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/No-The-Vatican-Is-Not-Paying-For-Russian-Gas-In-Rubles.html (https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/No-The-Vatican-Is-Not-Paying-For-Russian-Gas-In-Rubles.html)

European countries are pretty strong when it comes to Union, you won't really see a country just defying the sanctions without notifying the Union about it, if some country is facing such an issue with any resource the other countries will definitely come to help and arrange that resource for that country. But yes if in future any such thing happens then it won't only be a domino effect but in fact a win for Russia as it's economy would become stronger instead of going into isolation.

If this is fake news then someone behind is doing some propaganda for the Russia to send message that somewhat the sanctions have failed.

But thanks as well to social media, we know that this is not going to happen and it's unlikely that the Vatican is willing to take the risk with the Russians, because this seems to be a suicide on their side to help and aid them in this war.

Main thing that i do have in mind on knowing about such news on where a certain country did make out such decision which could definitely made out some domino effect but luckily it was really just some fake news.

Of course if one of the countries will really be having problems then the Union would surely be finding ways on supporting that one just as long it wont really be able to get some help or option on dealing with
Russia and its true that there are several various sources for gas which it wont really be that much a big problem for Vatican to see some solution of that problem.

Oh for god's sake!
The queen is the head of the Church of England, which is Anglican.
The queen "begging" the Pope is the same as Xi kneeling and praying before the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia.


Let me tell you about a real, confirmed domino effect:
Lithuania ceasing all Russian gas imports for domestic needs
 (https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/lithuania-ceasing-all-russian-gas-imports-domestic-needs-2022-04-02/)

Second, the Vatican does not buy gas, it gets both water and electricity from Italy.
Seriously people, have you ever been there, seen any gas and oil pipes going through San Pietro Plazza?
Oh wait, should have asked a far simpler question, do you even know what the Vatican is?

It is a joke (https://www.google.com/search?q=vatican+bought+russian+gas&oq=Vatican+bou&aqs)

https://i.imgur.com/OEJ26Kj.png

I wanted to have the real knowledge but it is not real that it happened. It may be an April fool joke that the media got to it and it spread. The media can be one of the source for knews not verified. So it was a joke from the information that I got above.

Do winters in Rome get cold enough to require heating? And the Vatican city itself is so tiny it probably don't have a pipeline directly from Russia and instead buys the gas from Italy. I don't think they'd even be worrying about this so like most said here, it's likely an April Fool's joke or some propaganda hoax.


That's a possibility. The Vatican would lose whatever remaining moral ground they have if it is suspected that they are supporting this war.


Nah, no one in Europe cares shit what the Vatican says.

So western sanctions failed to destroy the Russian economy. Now it seems this war was actually profitable for Putin. All those who were calling Putin a mad man and responsible for the downfall of Russia's economy now can enjoy the flourishment of rubles. West can try to find an alternative to Russian gas but they will never match the cost of Russian gas.

Fortunately you are wrong.
Russians do have bear the weight of the sanctions ofcourse and their economy is not just being destroyed but also these are causing long term effects. Some countries would ofcourse agree to pay them in rubles but this would only give a small pump to their already destroyed economy.
There is definitely a rebound of Russian Ruble and the price is increasing but this does not mean that the value would go back even if there are countries like India, China they would still need much more support to make their economy better and stronger.

Now this is something that might cause probelms, people spreading such jokes causes problems overall and it ends up influencing the people in a negative way for sure. Therefore one must be really careful while spreading such information!!

Everyone understands perfectly well that normal countries will not pay for raw materials that are supplied under contracts, which clearly indicate the mechanism of payment in Euros, for worthless rubles. Only those countries whose government is either bought by Russia or is on the hook will accept the ultimatum (many have the sins of illegal connections with Kremlin criminals in their hearts). The rest - they just sent a crazy dwarf from the bunker to hell, and continued to pay according to the signed contract :)

By the way, think about why Frau Merkel so persistently curtailed nuclear energy in Germany, and "accidentally" replaced it with hydrocarbons ... oh ... precisely from Russia? And for one thing, remember where her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder settled down ?! :)

Fake news is one challenge that the media is having. People want to hype certain things from the negative side to gain popularity especially the bloggers and those twitter handles. Now the Russian ruble is being hyped for popularity so that more countries will consider to buy Russia gas with it. This is looking like a propaganda to revive the ruble I think so.

It should be mentioned russia is also the #1 exporter of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants.


If sanctions are to have a chance of success, perhaps russia's global monopoly of the nuclear fuel market can be addressed.

It is premature to say if sanctions can succeed. Many different things can still happen, that will alter the course of events.

https://i.ibb.co/ZBd1NTn/ruble.jpg

The russian ruble appears on a path to recovery. While the vatican may not be buying rubles, to stabilize its value, it would appear someone out there is.

Vatican is not related to any nation directly, even though they are in Italy, they are their own nation basically, or state, or whatever you want to call them. It is not really a big deal that they would still get rubles because I never believed that they were part of the sanctions to begin with. However, other European nations do need gas, and if Russia only works with rubles then those western nations will have to deal with rubles all over again.

The fact that ruble gained so much power so quickly back to where it was is proof that ruble and even Russian economy wasn't as impacted as people believe it would be, I can't really say much else about it and feel sorry for the situation in Ukraine.

Guys.

The gas agreements are made in euros and as Russia has to respect the agreements, they cannot change anything (on the risk of financial penalties). This is how gas purchases are made in Europe. so no, European countries are not going to pay with Russian money.

Even if the Russians decide to stop the supply, this cannot be done in one day, it takes at least one month to stop the machines. Europe has enough gas until this summer and during this period we use a lot less gas volume until the next winter. Secondly, Russia isn't the center of gravity regarding this resource. There are alternative suppliers (USA,...)

Applying this measure would imply a situation of instability and deprive Russia of a considerable financial source. Moreover, contrary to the news, some Russian banks have so far been unaffected by the sanctions and are able to receive payments in euros and convert them into rubles.

https://i.imgur.com/vgmiMcr.jpeg

I don't know how far this is true, based on the search I found there is only one gas station in Vatican. Even if vatican buy gas with Rubles, this isn't gonna make a big impact. European countries aren't making trade and Asian countries keep them prepared which is the reason for the recovery of Rubles even at the worst case scenario of sanction.

Putin has already said he doesn't want to give charity and he's set this to be even stronger now. it seems that apart from the Vatican there are several other countries that are starting to surrender to it, one of which is Slovakia now. I read articles that said they had given up and if it was possible to bring Russian gas back into existence they would pay in rubles as Putin had determined.
This is indeed quite risky for them, but on the other hand, it seems that Slovakia still cannot live on Russian gas because 85% of their gas supply is imported from there.

So how did the price of rubles come back to the same place that was before the start of the war? How did Putin manage to recover his 40%-50% fall within a month? There won't be any long-term effects because there won't be any real replacement for Russian gas. The USA could provide little support for a very short time only. Russian gas is cheap and EU need that gas to run their economy. There is not any alternative at least till now.

Difficult to say whether the current exchange rate for Rubles can be sustained. Even in 2014, the RUR exchange rates were steady for a few months, before collapsing from 1 USD = 30 RUR to 1 USD = 70 RUR. It is difficult to say whether the exchange rates staying at these levels is due to the strength of the Ruble, or due to the Russian government burning their forex reserves to support it. If the latter case is true, then I don't expect the current exchange rates to hold for too long. A part of their reserves have been frozen as a results of the sanctions and embargoes.

We are still waiting for official confirmation from Vatican or Russia. If this news is true of course It can be said that the European sanctions against Russia have failed. as we know that the vatican is a very influential country in europe and even the world so if they have a deal with russia it will have a big impact on other countries and will have a domino effect.

Well this is something that does not surprise me at all, the Vatican with the power it has and the money it has can buy gasoline from any country it wants, what surprises me is that it must be somewhat impartial, but since everything is a business A At first glance, they don't care. On the one hand they are proclaiming no to war and on the other hand they buy from the wrong people, this is something incongruous, and it is time for the whole world to realize that the Vatican is the most corrupt in the world, they hide behind a religion to do that and many more things that are not allowed.

Until we get a definitive confirmation, we can't really accuse. However, if it is true, I can't really be surprised by it. After all, the catholic church (or any other church) is not really altruistic as they portray themselves to be and mostly work for its own interests. Their condemnation of the war was lackluster and their overall value to the general public is completely unexistent. So buying gas for Rbles would definitely not be beneath them.

The Vatican will never do that, because they are Catholics and there are only an estimated 140 000 Catholics left in Russia (0.1% of the total population.) Russian Orthodoxy make up almost 86.7% of the religion used in Russia.

So yea... I see someone already figured out that this is fake news, but I just wanted to show that there would not be any religious reasons for the Vatican to do that.  ::)

According to this article (https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/No-The-Vatican-Is-Not-Paying-For-Russian-Gas-In-Rubles.html) the Russian guy who started this rumour  confirmed that it's been a joke. Its more rule than exception, that some nonsense shared on social media goes viral, and even the choice of the country tell us that this has been a joke. I do agree though that. Agree with the rest of the stuff though.


Vatican will never do that because Italy takes care of that stuff from them but even if they did, number of Catholics in Russia wouldn't be any deciding factor.

As we know that the vatican is a country that is completely bordered or surrounded by italy, and italy supports europe which gives strict sanctions to russia, i believe this is difficult to happen because of vatican dependence on italy, moreover russia and vatican have not provided official confirmation so this is just issue.

What surprises you? There are at least 2 camps in Europe:
1. Who will sell at least their own mother for money. It's like the Vatican and the like.
2. Where Russia managed to put on "financial feeding" or collect a lot of compromising evidence on top-level politicians. So they follow all the instructions like obedient dogs.

Therefore, for me, for example, this is not something surprising. There are corrupt politicians, there are servants of the Kremlin - they fulfill their obligations to the owner. But it's good that there are not many of them, it's good that "Major Merkel of the FSB" left her post, this freed the hands of the EU.

the vatican is a religious country and what is happening between ukraine and russia is not a religious war, so we should not associate the vatican with war.  the sanctions imposed by the european union didn't fail it's just that russia had something they needed that are gas and oil, without it then the wheel of the economy will be difficult to move.

I am writing data from the American research center
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-and-eastern-europe/
According to Russian data for 2021, only 15% of the population of Russia are Muslims.

This is obviously fake. There's no way the Vatican could be buying gas from Russia directly simply because of its location, not to mention there are neighborhood far larger than the Vatican.

There are reports circulating that Hungary would be paying in rubles though that is still unconfirmed. It is far more believable than the Vatican story though, considering Hungary has several times moved in opposition to the EU in other issues.

Hungary has a very strong nostalgia for the days of Janos Kadash and goulash communism, when cheap energy resources came from the USSR, and Hungarian goods were in great demand in the USSR. And there is dissatisfaction with their current position in the European Union.

I did not know this, was it like a more profitable place with good economy back then? Or is it doing better right now? Our nation had the same thing with another nation, but a nation that was too powerful and authoritarian, which meant that in return of being economically rich, we also had to follow another nations rule and laws and they provided a lot of rules that we should follow.

For the past 20 years or so we haven't done that and became a bit more independent which resulted with us getting poorer and poorer in exchange of being free from their grasp, they hate us now for not following them, but we hated being their puppet even more so it turned out alright.

At the top of Hungary, for the last 20 years, there are constantly people who had and still have very close personal contacts with the Kremlin. Moreover, quite sensitive state propaganda is being carried out, with an anti-European, anti-Western, and pro-Russian bias. Such parties as Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom are actively developing - in fact a nationalist party. The party describes itself as a "principled, conservative and radically patriotic Christian" party whose main goal is to defend "Hungarian values ​​and interests". It rejects global capitalism, European integration and is anti-Zionist. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the party managed to win 20.54% of the vote and 23 seats in the National Assembly, making it the third largest political party in Hungary. Plus, the president, who has long been sitting on the krbchka at the Kremlin, and obediently fulfills ALL the orders of the Kremlin.

Under Kadash, Hungary had a high standard of living and poverty was practically defeated, any Hungarian could afford meat and vegetables for traditional Hungarian goulash every day. That is why that period of Hungarian history is called goulash communism. Hungary even now has a good price for its gas contracts and it depends on gas supplies from Russia by 85%, so I think Hungary will continue to buy Russian gas, and if necessary, will pay for it in rubles, because the energy security of its country is not the sacrifice that sane politicians are willing to make for someone else's armed conflict, no matter for what reason.

this seems to be changing direction or wanting to become a more independent country, whatever the decision is by opposing the rules of their group, of course there are sanctions that must be obeyed, but we can look in the mirror from Russia, where until now they seem to have not complained about the situation and the sanctions that have been applied to that country. and they can still survive, therefore they must have a key that can make other people seem dependent, so they are still needed, and it will be difficult for them to follow the rules of the group leader, while they do not immediately provide a solution

The Vatican is a very small country and its gas trade with Russia for several tens of millions of dollars solves practically nothing in terms of European and US sanctions, when Russia received billions of dollars a day for energy supplies. There was information that Moldova agreed to buy gas from Russia for rubles. Hungarian Prime Minister Orban recently said that he does not consider buying gas from Russia for rubles a circumvention of sanctions, but he was quickly explained what such rhetoric could lead to and he immediately changed his mind.
Of course, very quickly Europe cannot refuse the supply of energy carriers from Russia. However, this process, due to Russia's blackmail and its aggression against Ukraine, has been launched, and in five years it will be a disaster for Russia.

I read about it the other day, Hungary stated that it is ready to pay everything in rubles, but immediately afterward criticism came from most EU countries! Since the conflict began, Hungary has held its neutral position very firmly! Although a member of the European Union and NATO, Hungary still has strong ties with Russia! That probably won't change, it will be interesting what others will say about it, and whether their game is sustainable in the long run... many questions, only time can answer them!

Russia has the resources and of course, they are trying to achieve some goal through them, everyone has to play their cards the best way they can! Again many questions do they really have strong cards or are they just bluffing? And if they have strong cards, are they really ready to go all the way? If they are there will be consequences, probably big ones!

I will give only two figures to show how strong the Russian economy is:
1. The 2022 budget includes an oil price of $45 per barrel. Even by selling oil to India at a 30% discount, Russia gets about $25 in excess profits from every barrel that goes to the National Welfare Fund.
2. Europe buys Russian gas for about a billion dollars a day and the embargo on Russian gas in Europe is not even seriously discussed.

This is also what still makes a big question mark in my head, whether the discussion about sanctions on Russia has really been discussed seriously because Europe's dependence on oil and gas from Russia is very large. if they already have other alternatives then why should they ban countries that want to buy oil and gas from Russia? after all the vatican still need oil and gas from russia, forbidding them to buy from there is a mistake imo.

The European Parliament called on the EU Council to impose additional sanctions against the Russian Federation for its war against Ukraine. This is discussed in the resolution adopted at the plenary session in Strasbourg on 7 April. 513 MEPs voted for it, 22 were against, and 19 abstained, writes DW...

Oh is that so? Don't know about the USSR stuff but Hungary like Poland does seem to have disagreements with the EU bureaucrats over certain issues so I'm not surprised when I heard about this. Still looking for actual confirmation but it's almost certain that the EU will punish Hungary over it.

I think crypto industry can learn from Putin's master stroke of only allowing ruble for paying gas bills. Ruble was around 138/dollar in march starting and in April it is around 83/dollar. It also became best performing currency in march. So here the learning is if you want to increase the value of your crypto coin/token than you need to increase their use cases e.g. Payment for gas bills using ruble

I think Europe will still be able to say hello to Orban in the very near future.